Dead on Cue

Tessa Crichton #20

by Anne Morice

When Tessa's Scotland Yard husband Robin is invited to speak at the renowned and respectable Alibi Club, she is excited to be surrounded by the members -- all mystery writers of the first rank -- although she is sorry to see one of them missing.

Crime novelist and playwright William Montgomerie has died, leaving behind a supposedly bereaved widow and a lost manuscript. His widow, Gwen, suddenly blossoms into literary fame after years of struggling in the shadow of her famous husband. The splendidly eccentric Myrtle Sprygge, whose clairvoyant powers and old relationship with Montgomerie further complicate the situation, leads Tessa to wonder whether Gwen is taking credit for something she didn't write. And when Gwen is found murdered, everyone wonders what -- and who -- could have triggered such revenge.

Genres: Mystery

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Birth name: Felicity Shaw

Reviews

[MaryJo Dawson]

A friend introduced me to author Anne Morice with this book.
What struck me pretty quickly was how most of the mystery was in conversation format, and it wasn't as comfortable for me.
The mystery was quite good, and things moved along well.
But perhaps because without either first person or other character thoughts and observations expressed separately to give more detail, the whole thing put me off balance.
It is a unique way of writing. Many readers won't mind.
The reasons behind the deaths were rather complex, but then the culprit was a complex personality.

[Squeak2017]

The author can write dialogue and the characters jump off the page, but the mystery was so feeble that I saw through it very early on, even without the information withheld by the author. I prefer a third person narrative which was a quibble which is perhaps not entirely fair, though the first person narrative made the summary of the clueing by the smug heroine seem clumsy and forced. I would give this author another try as she kept me reading even when I decided who the killer was.

[Susan]

Tessa Crichton meets the authors who are members of the famed Alibi Club, and befriends Myrtle Sprygge, who tells her about a book that she had sent for evaluation to the late Willie Montgomerie. When Tessa receives a television script that she thinks was taken from Myrtle's book, she's reluctant to take the role. Then Myrtle dies and Tessa inadvertently finds herself learning more about Myrtle's past.

[HJ]

I didn't like this much. The characters didn't really come to life. Don't read any more.